How To Break Habits

Essential Reading: The Secret To Breaking Any Bad Habit

In the last decade, our understanding of the neurology of habit formation has been completely transformed — and the result is that we now know how to break bad habits like never before. There's a basic framework for understanding how habits work. At the core of this framework are four basic steps:

1. Identify your habit's routine

2. Experiment with different rewards

3. Isolate the cue

4. Have a plan

Step One: Identify Your Habit's Routine

There is a basic pattern at the core of every habit, a kind of neurological loop that has three parts: A cue, a routine and a reward.

To understand your bad habit, you need to identify the components of your loop. As an example, let’s say you have a bad habit, like I did when I started researching my book about the science of habit formation, The Power of Habit, of going to the cafeteria and buying a chocolate chip cookie every afternoon. Let’s say this habit has caused you to gain a few pounds. In fact, let’s say this habit has caused you to gain exactly eight pounds. How do you start diagnosing and then changing this behavior? By figuring out the habit loop. And the first step is to identify the routine.

In this cookie scenario — as with most habits — the routine is the most obvious aspect: It’s the behavior you want to change. My routine was that I got up from my desk every afternoon, walked to the cafeteria, bought a chocolate chip cookie and ate it while chatting with friends. So that’s what I put into the loop:Next, some less obvious questions: What’s the cue for this routine? Is it hunger? Boredom? Low blood sugar? That you need a break before plunging into another task? And what’s the reward? The cookie itself? The change of scenery? The temporary distraction? Socializing with colleagues? Or the burst of energy that comes from that blast of sugar? To figure this out, you need to do a little experimentation.

Step Two: Experiment With Rewards

Rewards are powerful because they satisfy cravings. But we’re often not conscious of the cravings that drive our behaviors. To figure out which cravings are driving particular habits, it’s useful to experiment with different rewards. On the first day of your experiment, when you feel the urge to go to the cafeteria and buy a cookie, for instance, adjust your routine so it delivers a different reward. Go outside, walk around the block, and then go back to your desk without eating anything. The next day, go to the cafeteria and buy a doughnut or a candy bar, and eat it at your desk. The next day, go to the cafeteria, buy an apple, and eat it while chatting with your friends. Then, try a cup of coffee. Then, instead of going to the cafeteria, walk over to your friend’s office and gossip for a few minutes and go back to your desk. You get the idea.

What you choose to do instead of buying a cookie isn’t important. The point is to test different hypotheses to determine which craving is driving your routine. Are you craving the cookie itself or a break from work? If it’s the cookie, is it because you’re hungry? (In which case the apple should work just as well.) Or is it because you want the burst of energy the cookie provides? (And so the coffee should suffice.) Or are you wandering up to the cafeteria as an excuse to socialize, and the cookie is just a convenient excuse? (If so, walking to someone’s desk and gossiping for a few minutes should satisfy the urge.)